In U.S. Pat. No. 3,823,017 issued July 9, 1974 to Harvey A. Hodes for "Color Photographic Developer Compositions," there is disclosed and claimed the use of 2-anilinoethanol in amounts from about 0.1 to 0.15 percent by volume of the developer composition as an effective anti-oxidant in color developer compositions. The color developer compositions in which 2-anilinoethanol was effective as an anti-oxidant were typically those containing a substituted paraphenylenediamine as the color developing agent. Such substituted paraphenylenediamines include .beta.-methanesulphonamidoethyl ethyl amino toluidine sesquisulphate hydrate which is known in the trade as CD3, N,N' - diethyl paraphenylenediamine hydrochloride, hydroxyethylethylparaphenylenediaminesulphate, and diethylaminoortho-toluidine hydrochloride.
Though 2-anilinoethanol used in the amounts taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,823,017 is effective as an anti-oxidant in preventing the spontaneous decomposition of the developer under storage conditions, it would still be desirable to accelerate the process of development of multicolor, multilayer, color film under actual processing conditions.